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Monthly Archives: May 2011

Sometimes things come and go for a season, periods of time that you enjoy and they naturally tail off. The one thing I instantly knew about Paddy Nash was he was going on to bigger and better things, the other thing I knew was that I personally see the fruits of that.

So let’s get some basics down – Paddy is one of the best songwriters I’ve ever worked with. Second, some of the best gigs I’ve done have been with Paddy.

The first meeting was strange. We were introduced by John O’Neill who kept insisting that “Paddy needs a bass player”. I didn’t have a bass in 2007 but word was getting out that I could play. Paddy and I shook hands and Paddy said, “let’s do a jam tonight”. “You’re a songwriter, do you have a copy of your songs? I’ll learn two or three and see where it goes from there.”, with website in hand I downloaded 18 songs, they were ALL brilliant. So I learned all 18 in a couple of hours…. that night I earned my nickname in Limavady, “Jase the Bass“.

The photo above was taken at the Alexander Arms in Limavady for a charity do I think. There was never any real rehearsal once I’ve learned a set it pretty much in my head. There are nights that music decides to do some very cool stuff and call upon some very unlikely people to do it…. Five times that night Paddy and I kept looking at each other with that look of, “WHERE DID THAT COME FROM”, where everything just locks in to place.

Reading in the Derry Journal over the weekend that Paddy is playing Glastonbury is just the news I wanted to read for years and I’m over the moon for Paddy. The time’s right, yeah it’s without the Enchilada’s (who are great in their own right as well), but he’d be a fool not to do it.

There are a gazillion web designers out there, I mean loads of them. A lot of them preach the gospel of UI and UX (User Interface and User Experience) and tweet until the end days where humans won’t be required to operate web sites. Just check Twitter there’s tons of them.

So as a humble customer looking to have their web site redesigned by mere demigods of the design world I’ve devised a simple test to show if these guys really practise what they preach.

I call it “the bog roll test”.

1. Arrange an appointment with your chosen web design firm.

2. Let them harp on for ten minutes about their work, their gushing Oscar award winning passion for quality websites….

3. At the point they say, “user experience”, politely stop them and say, “may I use your toilet please?”.

4. On arrival, sit on the toilet (even if you’re a man and only need a number 1). And look to see the position of the bog roll. If it’s in your field of vision from where you sit with your head pointing directly forward and you can easily reach the bog roll then they have passed the test.

5. If the bog roll is sitting on the cistern behind you and you have to arch your arm-crane-like to grab the tubular notepad then it’s an automatic fail. They just don’t get it 🙂

6. If all’s well then carry on with the gushing UX speech, other wise just grab your coat and run while shouting, “you failed the bog roll test!!!!”.